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Amanda Waller (Arrowverse)
Amanda Waller is a major antagonist in Arrow). She was the minor antagonist and anti-hero of Season 2, one of the two main antagonists of Season 3, and a minor antagonist in Season 4. She was the corrupt/sociopathic leader of A.R.G.U.S. and the mind and brains behind the Suicide Squad. She was killed when she refused to give information to the criminal organisation Shadowspire. She is a recurring character in Arrow, often appearing as a minor antagonist or immoral anti-hero. She was portrayed by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Biography Association with Edward Fyers and Oliver Queen In order to eliminate China White, Waller sought out Yao Fei on the island of Lian Yu. She maintained radio contact with Edward Fyers. On the island she had been shipping military weapons to take down a plane headed for China which contained China White. Right before this, Edward contacted her and told her how the plan was coming together. However, the plan soon failed due to Oliver Queen and Slade Wilson's intervention, and Fyers and all of his men were killed. Amanda would later capture Oliver and sent him to China after he fought and supposedly killed Slade. Although the situation has yet to be shown, it was obviously ended badly as Amanda later asks Oliver (Chronologically - Season 2) if he was still mad at her and was apparently shocked Oliver wanted to kill someone else more than her. Season 2 In "Keep Your Enemies Closer", she captures John Diggle telling him that she needs his help to rescue Lyla Michaels as she has gone dark in Moscow. She parts with a statement saying that A.R.G.U.S. are aware of what Oliver and him do at night. In "Tremors", Amanda offers Ben Turner an employment opportunity for a "squad" (the Suicide Squad) in order to shorten his prison sentence. In "Suicide Squad" Waller visits Lyla and Diggle at a hotel and requests both of their assistance to handle a chemical weapon situation, organised by Gholem Qadir, an old friend/enemy of Diggle's stationed in Markovia. Waller then tasked them with getting the Suicide Squad into position to take down the chemical weapons and terminating Qadir. Phase one of the plan, getting Qadir's phone from him at an art exhibition, succeeded, but Shrapnel attempted to flee and Waller activated the bomb in his head as punishment. Later, when the squad found the chemical weapons, Waller sent in a drone strike to terminate the threat but intended to take Deadshot and dozens of civilians with it. However, Diggle convinced Deadshot to flee with him. Since Waller's drone was homed in on Deadshot's tracking chip, Lyla was forced to cut it out of his neck and throw it away. The re-directed strike caused Waller to have to deal with the Markovian government on "unprovoked drone attack". Later, Oliver Queen visited Amanda in her office and the two are revealed to had some unspecified history together, apparently involving Slade Wilson, who Amanda believed to be dead just like Oliver did. When Oliver asked for information on Slade, Amanda gave him insight on a new mercenary named "Deathstroke" who she believed could be their old nemesis. In "Streets of Fire", John Diggle and Felicity Smoak contacted Amanda to find Oliver after he had disappeared after Moira Queen's death, Amanda revealed that Oliver was at his second base. She sends A.R.G.U.S. soldiers to Starling City to cut off Slade Wilson's army from leaving the city when his invasion begins and was soon contacted by Oliver demanding she call off her men, but she retaliated by reminding him that she must do what she has to in order to defend the country and that was to send a armed drone to Starling City. In "Unthinkable", she over saw the operation of A.R.G.U.S. soldiers in Starling, unaware of a squad she sent that were killed by Slade's army, she is soon held hostage by Diggle, Lyla and Deadshot where she revealed to Diggle that Lyla was pregnant with his child. She called off the drone after Oliver called her again and told her that Slade and his army were defeated. In the flashbacks, she saved Oliver from the Amazo's destruction and brought him to Hong Kong claiming they would have much to discuss. Season 3 In flashbacks, Amanda tried to force Oliver to work for her, and assigned agent Maseo Yamashiro as his handler. After numerous failed attempts to escape, Oliver agreed to proceed with his training to prevent Waller from killing Maseo's family as punishment for his failure in restraining Oliver. During the flashbacks, Waller gave Oliver an order to kill Tommy Merlyn, son of Malcolm Merlyn, after Oliver tried to access his email account from his previous failed escape attempt. Oliver with Maseo's help found a way around it so that Tommy could live for the time being. Amanda told Maseo Yamashiro to order Oliver to kill "a terrorist". She is summoned to meet with Oliver to her annoyance. She revealed to Oliver she knows he prevented Ferris Air flight 637, Paris to Hong Kong from being blown up over Lian Yu, she had witnessed his combat abilities on the island via Keyhole Hexagon satellite. However, Oliver revealed he knows Waller was the one who ordered Edward Fyers to shoot down the plane from a USB drive he picked off of Adam Catswidth, the "terrorist" she had him murder, he knows that Catswidth was Fyers' handler and wanted him silenced. Oliver threatened to expose her actions if anything were to happen to Maseo's family. Amanda admitted and revealed to Oliver, that Fyers' operation was to assassinate one target; Chien Na Wei and he saved her life. Amanda told him that she needed to know why Chien is in Hong Kong. After General Matthew Shrieve removed her authority as the leader of A.R.G.U.S. for committing unspeakable acts, Waller was then held hostage by General Shrieve who planned on using the bio weapon on Hong Kong. Waller revealed she had no involvement with Shrieve and told Oliver to get as far away from Hong Kong, hoping they could meet again one day. After the Suicide Squad, consisting of Cupid, Captain Boomerang and Floyd Lawton, surveyed King Shark destroying an aquarium, Waller decided to send them in to extract him. Waller took Lamden to an A.R.G.U.S. detention center to be chained up. She took a woman to see him, before cutting him open to carefully dissect him. After dissection, she sent him across the other side of the country to begin as part of the Suicide Squad. Soon, The Flash came to try and rescue King Shark. However, Waller sent some drones after him, created by General Eiling. They eventually found where King Shark had been, but Barry was quickly captured and was told of what had happened to Lamden. Season 4 One of her agents is attacked and killed by the organisation Shadowspire. Shadowspire use the eye of the deceased agent to enter the A.R.G.U.S. headquarter, killing everyone inside expect some agents to keep them as hostages. The leader of the Shadowspire operation, Lieutenant Joyner, then demands Waller to give him the Rubicon codes. Knowing what terror Rubicon would create in the wrong hands, Waller denies Joyner, causing him to kill one A.R.G.U.S. hostage. He then tells Waller that she has twenty minutes to reconsider. However, when he returns to Waller, Waller and Layla Diggle tell Joyner that Waller is fully able to watch him execute every person in the room and still not give him the codes. Convinced, Joyner shoots Waller in the head and demands the codes from Layla. After the threat of Shadowspire is removed, Layla proposes a toast on the deceased Waller. However, Team Arrow only follows reluctantly and Felicity remarks if anyone remembers the time Waller wanted to wipe out the entire city with a drone strike. Layla seems to be the only one who mourns Waller. Personality Amanda was described as the "formidable and enigmatic". She display little to no emotion, morals, remorse nor honor. Though she presents herself as in charge of apprehending and countering dangerous threats to the United States, in spite of what she projects for people around her, she was equally as sociopathic and brutal as the criminals she apprehends, as shown in the almost casual way she kills Shrapnel when he tried to abandon Task Force X. Similarly, she showed no moral compunctions in sacrificing agents, referring to them as her "assets". This indicates she was little different to people like both the late Deadshot and the late Bronze Tiger. Amanda's top priority was to protect the United States. Her actions followed an ends justifies the means. Stemming from this, if she believed the final result is worth it, she will take any action means necessary. As a result, she endorse the use of torture while interrogating suspects as well as assassination to remove associates of hers who would be likely to expose her. Because she believed Oliver would make a valuable asset, she was willing to use his newly acquired morals to get him to work for her, as when she wanted Oliver to become one of A.R.G.U.S.'s agents she threatened to murder Maseo's family if Oliver did not cooperate, and later when she threatened Oliver's sister Thea, if Oliver did not tell her where the Yamashiros had escaped to. She believed Chien Na Wei was so much a threat that she was willing to blow up a plane full of innocent people to kill her. When Slade Wilson launched his Siege, she planned to use a drone strike to bomb Starling City, she had no guilt or remorse for these vile acts of hers. Amanda tried to justify her ruthless, immoral actions in the belief that there are people in the world that are beyond reason, "that deal only in extremes", and that it would be "naïve to think that anything less than extreme measures will stop them". Amanda was also arrogant, hypocritical and stubborn, like when General Matthew Shrieve removed her authority, she blamed Oliver and Maseo for it, when it was her unspeakable methods that resulted in it. When John Diggle, Lyla Michaels, and Floyd Lawton had her at gunpoint she refused to back down and tried to tell Lyla that "What you're doing is treason" while Amanda had ordered a drone strike on Starling City, a civilian zone, seemingly without authorization from the United States government, this showed that she always tried to twist things. Amanda was not always without reason as she finally agreed to call off the drone strike when Oliver reported that he subdued Slade and his army. She was intelligent enough to recognize possible talent as she believed Oliver to be a potential operative, and she and Oliver in the present day once had an uneasy alliance, due to the fact that Oliver needed to take down Slade. Also, despite their rough history and knowing Amanda's reputation, Oliver did trust her enough to let have custody over Carrie Cutter to help stabilize her and put her talents to good use; however, the only reason why he allowed Carrie into her custody, was because Lyla was a member member of A.R.G.U.S. at the time, as Oliver trust Lyla, more than Amanda, as the former would make sure things don't get out control. These negative traits of hers, was what led to Amanda's deserve death at the hands of Joyner. Legacy After her death, Lyla had a toast with Oliver to honor Amanda, as she still had some respect for her former superior, Oliver on the other hand was hesitant toast for Amanda, this shows he still despise the latter for every unspeakable act she had done over the years, including when she forced him to commit crimes in Hong Kong for her. No one except Lyla, mourned or grieved over Amanda's death. As Waller's successor, it falls to her to rid A.R.G.U.S. of Wallers mistakes. Appearances ''Arrow'' Season 1 *"The Odyssey" (voice) *"Dead to Rights" (voice) *"Darkness on the Edge of Town" Season 2 *"Keep Your Enemies Closer" *"Tremors" *"Suicide Squad" *"City of Blood" * "Streets of Fire" * "Unthinkable" Season 3 *"The Calm" (flashbacks) *"The Magician" *"The Brave and the Bold" (flashbacks) *"Left Behind" (flashbacks) *"Canaries" (flashbacks) *"Suicidal Tendencies" *"The Return" (flashbacks) Comics ''Arrow: Season 2.5'' *"Acolyte" Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq *"Awakenings" Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq Trivia *In "Suicide Squad" and "Unthinkable", Floyd Lawton referred to Waller as "The Wall", this is a nod to her nickname in the comics. Since in the comics Waller is a very solid 5' 1" 200lb woman, the name is even more appropriate. Likewise, her pencil and ink iteration is a very formidable personality, being one of the few characters, especially unpowered, who does not back down from a confrontation with the Batman. *It's possible that Edward Fyers didn't know that Waller was his employer. *Waller is the second villain in the series' flashback timeline to not die and be seen in the present timeline, Slade Wilson being the first. 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